141. CXLI.
THE DECEASE OF ELDER GAVITT.
Post Offis, Confedrit × Roads }
(wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky),
May 2, 1867.
A blite hez fallen o'er my soul. My eyes, albeit unused to
the meltin mood, hev distilled nothin but tears for twelve
hours. A Piller hez fallen! In the meetin-house there is a
vacant pew, and a chair at Bascom's is without a setter. Last
nite, at precisely nine P. M., Elder Abimileck Gavitt departed
this life.
I weep ez I write. The Elder wuz snufft out jest ez the
flowers uv spring wuz cumin — jest ez the weather wuz a
gittin warm enough to go barefooted — jest when it wuzn't
nessary to bother about gettin fire-wood, or be concerned
about feedin the stock — jest when it begins to be comfortable
a sittin onto the grocery stoop — jest at the threshhold uv six
months' enjoyment. Why wuz he taken? Ekko ansers. The
ways uv Providence is inskrootable.
Elder Gavitt wuz a native uv North Karliny, wich State he
left in the blush uv early manhood, jist after he wuz married.
Wat he left North Karliny for, I never wuz able to assertane
percisely; but I hev understood that it wuz suthin in connection
with a smoke-house, and the hams wich did hang therein.
He wuz in a Whig naberhood — his naber, the proprietor of
the smoke-house, wuz a Whig — ther wuz sum hams missed —
the rinds wuz found in his possession — Whig intolerance and
persekooshen. Upon sich slite evidence he wuz adjudged
guilty of theft, and wuz ignominiously rid on a rale, and
ordered to leave the country in twenty-four hours, wich he did,
driftin nat'rally to Kentucky. Thank Heaven for sich outrages!
But for sich, Kentucky wood either hev bin a Republican
State, or wood hev remained unsettled.
Elder Gavitt wuz alluz a Democrat uv the strictest sect.
He voted for Jackson, and reglerly for every Democratic candidate
sence. He didn't read very much; indeed, he coodent
do it all all, and wuz, consekently, stedfast in the faith. He
wuzn't shook about, and driven hither and yon by every wind,
but remained thro life fast in the groove into wich he hed bin
origenelly sot. His politikle creed wuz made up uv this one
idee, to wit: Hatrid uv Noo England. He hatid Noo England
becoz Noo England hatid whiskey, wich he coodent git along
without, and slavery, uv wich he hed a hundred niggers. He
votid agin Noo England all his life reglerly, and ez many times
on each eleckshen day ez he cood, without risk.
My acquaintance with the deceest commenst about three
years ago. It wuz at his house I stopt on my advent into
these parts. Ther wuz no need uv formal introduckshens —
ther wuz already a bond atween us wich knit our souls
together. His eye, ez it lit onto my nose, lighted up with a
smile; and ez I gazed on hizzen, I felt that he wuz indeed a
man and a brother. He took me in — he sheltered me — he
gave me whereof to eat and to drink and to make merry, and
with him I tarried till I wuz reglerly installed ez paster uv the
Church, and thereby reglerly provided for.
The cause uv the Elder's death wuz a broken heart. He
wuz a ardent Confedrit, and manfully bore up under the
reverses of the war. His courage wuz unshaken doorin the
repeated successes uv the Federal armies; and even when
emancipation deprived him uv his slaves, he still hed faith
that, evenchooally, all wood be well. “We may be beeten
now,” wuz his constant remark, “but the Northern Dimocrisy
are all right, and thro them we'll yet conker!” Confidin in
em, bleevin in em, he held out up to the passage uv the
Military Reconstruckshen Bill.
I then saw a change steal insensibly over my venerable
friend. His head bowed with supprest grief — his bosom
throbbed with the emoshen that wuz strugglin for uttrance.
He wood come over to my offis five or six times a day, and ask
me to read him that passage uv the law givin the nigger the
ballot. I wood do it, when, without sayin a word, he wood
reel off, with tears flowin down his wasted cheeks, to Bascom's.
I wood foller him, to see that no harm came to him. The old
man wuz so broken that he'd pay for his own likker and mine
too, without noticin. Fearin to awaken unpleasant emoshens
in his mind, I never menshened the latter circumstance.
Things grew worse with him. When Randall wrote to me
to consiliate the niggers, the old man obeyed without a murmur.
Democrisy wuz his first idea, and he obeyed her behests, tho
'twuz consoomin his very sole. He shook hands with niggers,
tho the touch wuz ez red hot iron; he took two uv em into his
pew, tho his promoxity to em set him a shakin like the ager;
and he votid to change the name and objects uv the Institoot,
tho the convulsive workins uv his face showd wat the struggle
cost him.
Day by day the Elder faded. The iron entered his sole, and
it wuz eatin him up by degrees. He walked the streets
listlessly, his eyes suffoosed with tears, and his lips movin ez
ef mutterin suthin to hisself. I become concerned for him,
and so did the entire cirkle. Bascom figgered up his akkount
at his bar, and went to the records to see whether his farm wuz
unencumbered, and sich uv the neighbors ez hed lent him small
sums sot about gittin em.
Last Sunday the pitcher went to the well for the last time.
I hed four niggers in his pew, upon whom he looked vacantly,
but sed nothin. After servis, I stopped him. “Elder,” sez I,
in a whisper, “it wood hev a good effeck ef yoo cood kiss them
little nigger girls.”
“Parson!” sed he, tremblin like a leaf, “is it absolootely
necessary?”
“It is the dooty uv evry Dimokrat, in this crisis, to kiss ez
many nigger children ez possible.”
A strange expression lit up the old man's countenance. In
a frenzied manner he kissed all there wuz in the church, and
commenst on the adult females uv that persuasion. With
difficulty we restrained him; but breakin loose from us, he
startid down the street, a runnin down and kissin every nigger
child his eyes restid on. Finally he sunk to the erth eggsaustid,
and we bore him to his house and put him to bed.
From that bed he never ariz. He wuz a goner. We hed to
give him his likker in a spoon, and I never knowd a Kentuckian
to recover who wuz past drinkin out uv a bottle. Slowly
his strength wasted. Yesterday he rallied and asked for me.
“Perfesser!” sed he, with an effort, “is Kentucky to rool
the niggers, or the niggers to rool Kentucky? Has Dimocrisy
swallered the nigger, or the nigger swallered the
Dimocrisy?”
And all wuz o'er! He fell back a piece uv clay, wich never
cood rally to the poles agin.
Bascom and I turned aside and wept. Sed Bascom, “Hed
he lived two years more I wood hev hed his farm.”
“Not any,” sed I, bustin into teers. “I wood hev hed it to
endow the Institoot.”
“In that event it wood evenchooally hev bin mine,” gasped
Bascom, relapsin into a fresh spasm uv grief.
We buried him yesterday. It wuz the biggest funeral ever
knowd at the Corners. It wuz a tetchin site. Standin around
his bier, wuz his four children by his first wife, and his six
children by his second wife, and twelve or fifteen other children
uv all colors, from that uv a new saddle up to dark
molasses, who insisted upon bein counted in ez mourners. It
wuz the tightest place I wuz ever in in my life.
“My friends,” sed I to em, “is this seemly? Is this
proper?”
They replied that it wuz. “I mourn a father,” sed one;
“not much uv a father, but he wuz the only one I ever had.”
“I mourn a husband,” sed the mother uv the first speaker, “not
legally a husband, but morally, or rather, immorally.” “We
weep,” sed all these various shades in korus, and they bustid
out into a torrent uv greef wich completely extinguished them
on the tother side uv the grave, wich hed the legal rite to
mourn.
Ez a matter uv coarse, it ended in a row. Issaker Gavitt
swore that no cussid bleached niggers shood shed teers at his
father's funeral; and Amandy flew at a quadroon wich wuz
cryin too prominently, and Mrs. Gavitt attacked the quadroon's
mother who wuz displayin altogether too much white pockit
handkercher. In the melee I left, satisfied that Democrisy hez
altogether too many rough pints to git over pleasant.
I feel it my dooty to erect a monument to the memory uv
this good and troo man — this martyr to Democrisy. Demokrats,
feelin an interest in the matter, and wishin to contribute
to the work, may send by mail sich donashens ez they see fit,
to me, with perfect confidence that they will be yoosed.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster), and Professor.
